People

Founders

Dr. Lea Berrang-Ford

Dr. Lea Berrang-Ford is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Liber Ero Fellow in Science, Communication, and Policy at McGill University, Montreal (Canada). She holds a Ph.D in Epidemiology from the University of Guelph. Dr. Berrang-Ford draws on her background in epidemiology and geography to translate and integrate quantitative and qualitative tools for study design and analysis for adaptation tracking. She is interested in new conceptual and methodological opportunities for development of systematic, comprehensive, and theory-guided indicators of adaptation policy at the global level. Dr. Berrang-Ford co-leads the Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change project in the Canadian Inuit north, the Peruvian Amazon, and southwestern Uganda. She leads the methodology portfolio at TRAC3.

Dr. Robbert Biesbroek

Dr. Robbert Biesbroek is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Wageningen University (Netherlands). He is an expert on national adaptation policy and barriers to climate change adaptation. His research interests include measuring and evaluating progress on adaptation policy, interventions to overcome barriers to change, boundary-spanning policy problems and social mechanisms for policy change. He was active in the PEER study on National Adaptation Strategies across Europe (2008-2010) and the EEA’s report on national adaptation in Europe (2014). Dr. Biesbroek holds a Ph.D. in Political and Environmental Science (2014) from Wageningen University. He is member of the International Climate Policy Innovation network and the Dutch Association of Public Administration. He leads conceptual development at TRAC3.

Dr. James Ford

Dr. James Ford is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Canadian Institutes for Health Research Chair at McGill University, where he leads the Climate Change Adaptation Research Group. He holds a Ph.D in Geography from Guelph University. His work takes place at the interface between climate and society, and he is particularly interested in climate change vulnerability and adaptation. As part of TRAC3 he is particularly interested in developing novel approaches to tracking climate change adaptation at global and regional levels, examining the experience of adaptation in particular locations, and advancing approaches for adaptation monitoring and evaluation. Dr. Ford is currently Editor in Chief at the journal Regional Environmental Change. He leads empirical development at TRAC3.

Affiliates

Dr. Jody Heymann

Dr. Heymann is the Dean of the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California Los Angeles and former Founding Director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University, the Project on Global Working Families, and the World Policy Analysis Center (WPAC). The WPAC is the first initiative to examine the effect of health and social policies on household and community health needs in all 193 United Nations countries. Dr. Heymann now leads the WPAC at UCLA. Dr. Heymann has authored and edited over 250 publications and is dedicated to bridging gaps between research and policymakers. She has worked with government leaders in North America, Europe, Africa and Latin America as well as a wide range of intergovernmental organizations.

Dr. Tristan Pearce

Dr. Tristan Pearce is an Assistant Professor in Geography with the Sustainability Research Centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) and Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Geography at the University of Guelph, Canada. His research focuses on the human dimensions of global environmental change, in particular the vulnerability and adaptation of communities and socio-ecological systems to environmental change. He is currently working on these issues in partnership with Indigenous communities in the Canadian Arctic, Pacific Islands, and Australia. He works on several projects that seek to integrate traditional knowledge of Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic in environment and societal decision-making. He continues to work on adaptation tracking in the Canadian Arctic and has new initiatives tracking adaptation in Australia.

Dr. Johann Dupuis

Dr. Johann Dupuis is a senior researcher with the Public Policy & Sustainability Unit of the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP) at the University of Lausanne. He is an expert on environmental policy and governance with a focus on climate change and adaptation policy. He is particularly interested in the challenge of integrating climate change adaptation in modern and complex governance systems which, requires developing new conceptual tools and methods to understand, compare and monitor the resilience of collective decision-making processes. Dr. Dupuis holds a PhD in Public administration and MA in Political Science from the University of Lausanne. He is currently mandated to produce a policy assessment of Switzerland Post-Kyoto framework and has a new research project undergoing on adaptation governance.

Project Leads

Stephanie Austin

Stephanie is a Project Leader and full-time research assistant with Professors Ford and Berrang-Ford. Her current research examines federal adaptation policies and programming in the health sector of OECD countries, monitoring and evaluation of health adaptation, and adaptation in the health sector of Canadian jurisdictions. In 2013 Stephanie graduated with a B.A. (Hons.) in Geography and International Development Studies from McGill University.

Alexandra Lesnikowski

Alexandra is a Project Leader with TRAC3. Her current research is focused on longitudinally assessing adaptation progress at a national level, identifying predictors of adaptation progress at a national level, and characterizing transformative adaptation across sectors. Alexandra holds a M.A.P. from the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada) and B.A. (Hons.) in Political Science from McGill University. She is currently at PhD student at McGill University.

Malcolm Araos Egan

Malcolm is a M.A. student in the Department of Geography at McGill University, Montreal (Canada). His research with the group seeks to track and evaluate climate change adaptation initiatives in urban areas globally. His work includes developing novel frameworks and methodological tools for reporting adaptation activity, as well as assessing the effects of adaptation on vulnerability. In 2013 he graduated with a B.A. (Hons.) in Geography (Urban Systems) from McGill University.

Jolène Labbé

Jolène Labbé is a Project Leader with TRAC3. Her current research is focused on characterizing and evaluating the adaptation landscape in Canada’s North, focusing on government policies, programs and actions in Nunavut. Jolène is a 3M 2012 student fellow, Guelph Mercury Top 40 Under 40 recipient, and Guelph Young Women of Distinction. She holds a BA.Sc (Hons.) in International Development Studies and Biology from the University of Guelph.

Melanie Flynn

Melanie Flynn is a Project Leader with TRAC3. Her current work is focused on evaluating adaptation at the community level in Arviat, Nunavut, and in particular applying the Adaptation Readiness Framework (Ford & King. 2015) to examine spatial and temporal linkages in adaptation. Melanie is in the final year of her M.Sc. in“Geography of Environmental Risk and Human Security”at The United Nations University and The University of Bonn in Germany. She holds a B.A (Hons.) in Geography from the University of Leeds.